St Jude Medical has announced preliminary results from the EnligHTN III study, which found the company’s second-generation EnligHTN renal denervation system provided safe and effective therapy for patients with drug-resistant, uncontrolled hypertension six months post-procedure.

The results were presented during a Hot Line Late-breaking clinical trial session at EuroPCR (20-23 May, Paris, France).

The EnligHTN III study is an international, non-randomised clinical trial that followed device performance and assessed outcomes through six months of follow-up for 39 eligible patients. Preliminary results confirmed safe, rapid and sustained reduction in blood pressure measurements for patients with drug-resistant hypertension.

“This six-month data from EnligHTN III provides further evidence of the benefits associated with this next-generation renal denervation system,” says Stephen Worthley, St Andrew’s Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, a principal investigator of the EnligHTN III study. “This study demonstrates that the next-generation EnligHTN renal denervation system delivers safe and effective treatment that is aligned with the outcomes of the first generation system, and ultimately saves time in the procedure room.”

Six-month EnligHTN III data showed:

An average systolic blood pressure reduction of 25 mmHg points

81% of patients responded to the therapy, which is defined as a blood pressure reduction of at least 10 mmHg when measured during an office visit

No serious device- or procedure-related adverse events reported

The EnligHTN III study expands upon the research conducted in the EnligHTN I trial of the first-generation EnligHTN system, which demonstrated that patients with drug-resistant hypertension had a safe drop in blood pressure. New data from the EnligHTN I trial confirmed the fast, early reduction in blood pressure remains sustained at 24 months, further demonstrating the long-term benefits of this procedure when using the EnligHTN technology. 77% of patients were responders at 24 months, with a blood pressure reduction of at least 10 mmHg.

Forty-six patients were treated with the EnligHTN system in the EnligHTN I multicentre study. To be considered for enrolment, patients were required to have a systolic blood pressure above 160 mmHg (150 mmHg for patients with type II diabetes) and take at least three antihypertensive medications, including a diuretic. Notably, the EnligHTN I study reports the longest term follow-up to date on a multi-electrode ablation catheter.

Also presented at EuroPCR were one-month findings from the post-market EnligHTN II clinical trial. Preliminary results demonstrated a reduction in systolic blood pressure across sub-groups with varying degrees of hypertension and kidney functionality, and found an early 14 mmHg reduction in blood pressure in patients with a systolic blood pressure above 160 mmHg. Blood pressure reduction for patients with a systolic blood pressure above 160 mmHg was in-line with previous real-world, post market studies. While still reporting a reduction, patients with poor kidney functionality and a baseline blood pressure lower than 160mmHg did not have as large of a reduction of blood pressure at one month.

The EnligHTN II trial is being conducted at up to 40 sites in Europe and Australia and will enrol up to 500 patients with uncontrolled hypertension. The data presented during EuroPCR was from 18 centres and 100 patients.

Collectively, the EnligHTN trials are approaching 300 treated patients with on-going enrolments in the EnligHTN II trial and observational registries across Europe and Australia.